Solo Fighter
by elizabethwrite
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia is a high ranking police officer. Her life is exciting and full of adventures until one day she gets a new team. This completely flips her life upside down because the great Lucy Heartfilia works alone. Then, her childhood nightmares return as they take on a new case. Can Natsu and Gray help Lucy take down the criminal haunting her childhood?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Run. Hide. Find a weapon. Anything at all to arm yourself with. Keep running. He's catching up. There! A broken leg of a chair! I can use this against him! I reach for it only to see a little knife tear its way into my forearm. I can't even scream out in pain I'm so shocked. I look over to my right and I see him. He'll get me I have to keep running. Too late. He's bigger and faster than me. I feel a big, rough hand grab my shoulder. He has me. I turn around to see his disgusting, evil smile.

I bolt upright. I'm sweating all over. I'm panting. I sigh to myself as I shiver from my nightmare. "Not again," I say to myself as I crawl out of bed to go wash myself up. I walk into my bathroom not even bothering to look at the time. I turn on the shower so it's almost so hot it'd burn me. I walk to the mirror and see hair matted to my face from all the sweat. I give myself a look of disapproval. I have to wash myself off I feel gross. Feeling the water to make sure the temperature is just right, I take off my clothes and step in. I take a quick shower and dry myself off then go to check the time.

Walking out of the bathroom to check the clock, I open the blind to one of my windows in my apartment to see it's bright and it's probably late into the morning. "Jeez I'm late." I grab my clothes and get dressed quickly. My daily outfit usually consists of black skinny jeans with a gun holster on my right thigh. As for the top, it's usually a dark colored tank top when it's warm. During colder days I wear a dark colored long sleeve turtleneck. Although, it's fall right now so I just open my window to see if I should wear warmer or cooler clothes. I decide that's it's warm enough to wear a tank top so that's what I put on. After doing that I slip my feet into my mid-calf combat boots. I had them custom made so they look somewhat fashionable but still do the job of normal combat boots. After tying them I stand and tie my hair into a half ponytail. Then, I grab my jacket and put it on. Before walking out the door I grab my badge and slip it on the left breast pocket of my jacket and put my handgun in my gun holster.

I start to work on my way to work and I'm halfway there when I realize I forgot my cell phone. Oh well. I can live a day without I guess. I don't carry around a purse because it would only get in the way of my work. So instead, I just keep my wallet in one of the inside pockets of my jacket. I don't normally take it out when I get home so I rarely forget it. Although, I don't have a car because I live close to work so I walk. I'd just be wasting money if I bought a car. I do have a license though, I need that for work. There's also my police ID, but there's an extra one of those at the station. Since I need my license though, if I ever forget my wallet I have to go back and get it so I just keep it in my everyday jacket.

I see the police station as I turn the corner. In big, golden letters above the front doors read the words 'Magnolia Police'. I smile as I reach for the handle of the door. When I open the door all I hear and see is chaos. There are people running that I've never seen here before. I wonder who they are as I make my way to my desk with an annoyed look on my face. I hope they're not new employees. I figure even if they are they'll be fired soon anyway because of their reckless behavior.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I sit down at my desk and open up some documents piled up in the corner. I left with a clean desk yesterday so these must be new cases or complaints we've received. I try to ignore all the noise the people I've never seen before are making. Just as I'm about to start reading the documents a crumpled up paper ball hits me in the head. It didn't hurt because it's just paper but it really annoyed me. I smack my hands down on my desk and stand up. I've had it with these people. I look at them and notice one has strange pink, spiky hair. The other has spiky, raven colored hair.

I start to stomp my way over to them when Makarov calls my name from the second floor. "Lucy! I need you to come up here!" I look up and see him leaning over the railing and waving me up.

"Alright, I'm coming!" I say to him and make my way over to the stairs.

"Wait, bring up Natsu and Gray with you!"

I figure those must be the new people because I've never heard those names and I know everybody working here. I see they're still throwing things at each other and screaming stupid insults at each other.

"Hey! Pinky and Pinky's Friend!" I yell at them.

"My hair is not pink! It's salmon. And don't call me Pinky I have a name you know. It's Natsu."

"Yeah and my name is Gray not Pinky's Friend."

"Look, I don't care what your names are just come with me and stop acting like idiots," I say sternly to them. Then I turn around and they follow me to the stairs. I hear one of them mumble something about me being a killjoy although I couldn't care less about what they think of me. I reach the top of the stairs and the two boys stand on either side of me.

"What did you need Makarov?" I ask with curiosity on my face.

"Well...I know how you prefer to work alone, but you are going to be getting a new partner." I can feel the color drain from my face. I know it's best to not say anything because I can't go against his word since he's my boss. So, I just stand there looking unhappy. Besides it's not like I have to talk to my partner and I could probably slip away and work on my own when we're on the job anyway. I know it's one of these two standing next to me that I'm getting as a partner though.

"The partner you're going to get is Natsu."

"Okay if he's my partner then why's this guy here too?" I point to Gray wondering how I'm going to have to have to work with him too.

"Well...he's...uh...I don't want to make you angry," Makarov is telling me nervously. As he stutters to find the right words I start to feel that I'm really going to hate what he has to say.

"Gray is going to be your partner too." I turn stiff at those words. What the heck? Why do I have to get stuck with these idiots? And why did he say I'm getting a new partner when I was really getting a team?

"Why didn't you just say I was being put on a team instead of telling me I was only getting one person to deal with?" I ask Makarov rather annoyed knowing that I have to be around those idiots most of the time at work now.

"I thought it would make you angry so instead of giving you everything at once I wanted to ease into it."

"Well, I guess it really doesn't matter because it won't change the fact that I gave to work with them," I say as I turn to them. "So? What do you guys do?" I asked sounding as uninterested as possible.

They go on to explain how they work and how they help on cases, but I quickly find myself toning them out and just catch myself hearing the important stuff that I need to know. Apparently Gray doesn't actually go out into the field when he goes on a case. He stays in the car and talks to his team through wireless communicators that everyone has in one of their ears. He'd also have the crime scene up on his computer so he can see what's happening everywhere at every second. He can even see inside the building of wherever the crime took place. I don't know how he said he manages to get that information but all I know is that it can really come in handy. It's even better that he stays in the car rather than me having to work with him in person on the job.

On the other hand, this Natsu guy sounds totally unreliable. The way he describes how he handles jobs sound like he basically lets the criminal escape. There's no way I can be around this guy on a job for more than 30 minutes without ripping all my hair out. All I hope is that he can shoot well because then I can knock him back into place and show him the correct way to catch a criminal.

After they're done explaining things Makarov answers a call. His face suddenly turns serious and I know something has happened. I prepare myself for what case he's about to put us on.

"There's a hostage situation in the Central Mall. You guys need to leave now and prepare yourselves to fight." With that said, my new team and I walk out to the car.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I grab the keys and toss them to Gray as we're heading out the door. He catches them then looks at me like a lost puppy.

"Why are you looking at me like that? If you stay in the car to let us know what's happening it only makes sense that you drive. That way you're ready to pick us up if we're in a hurry. Besides, wouldn't it just be a pain if you just had to switch seats with the driver all the time?"

"Well, I just thought that you didn't like us very much so you wouldn't want one of us to drive," he says back to me with a look of surprise on his face.

"You're right. I don't like either of you guys but I won't let that get in the way of my job."

"If you guys are done with your chit chat, we have some people to save." I look at the car and see Natsu getting in the passenger seat. Then, I get in the back and Gray gets in the driver's seat and starts the car.

As all the possible situations for the hostages are going through my head I start thinking of ways to rescue them. There's no way I'm going to actually work with these people. Well, Gray might be of some help to me but, I'm defiantly not going into action with Natsu. I work best alone with only myself to worry about.

I keep all kinds of guns in the back of my car so I'm going through them thinking of which one I think will be best. We don't have as much information as I'd like to have on the situation but, that's to be expected since there are hostages the criminals probably barricaded themselves inside. I already have my pistol in my gun holster but I normally have one other gun with me when I go on a job. I end up choosing a sniper and attach a thermal scope since I probably won't be able to get close to the criminals without putting innocent lives in danger. As extra precaution I slip a combat knife on the inside of my right boot. Then, I put a bandolier around my waist. I put extra ammunition in the pockets and there's one pocket designed to hold three throwing knives so I have those too. Lastly, I attach a strap to my sniper so I can let it hang over my back as I'm running.

We arrive a couple of blocks away from the Central Mall and Gray hands Natsu and I ear pieces so we can communicate with each other.

"The ear pieces work both ways so we can all talk to each other and I can give you updates and warnings." Gray smiles confidently as he tells me this.

"Okay, what's the plan Luce?" Natsu asks while looking at me.

"I have a plan but you're not part of it. I think you're already aware of this but I work alone. I'm going to go in by myself. You can do whatever you want but don't mess me up or get in my way. Gray might be helpful to me but I don't work with other people out in the field. And don't call me Luce." After saying that, I open the car door and take off. I can hear Natsu calling out to me but I ignore him. Then, I hear Gray in my earpiece.

"Lucy, I think going in alone is a bad idea. If we're a team we have to stick together out in action."

"If you want to be a team then tell me what's happening inside Central Mall. I can handle myself just fine. Besides, I didn't say Natsu couldn't help, he just needs to stay out of my way."

"Hold up, how am I not supposed to get in your way when we're trying to rescue the same people?" Natsu then says to me through the earpiece.

"I don't know, that's not my problem. Now stop talking to me, I'm trying to focus."

I ignore whatever else he starts saying over the earpiece and start looking for a back way into the mall. I climb up the emergency stairs to a neighboring building and once I reach the roof I start running to jump to the roof of the mall. I step on the ledge with a running start and jump to the other roof. One foot hits the gravel and I summersault into the landing.

"Nice one, Lucy. It took Natsu forever to learn how to do that." I hear Gray laugh as he tells me that.

"I'm not surprised." I say after I push down the button so they can hear me speak.

"It took me forever to learn what? Why are you laughing?" Natsu asks sounding as if he were being left out.

"Hey, Gray, what's this other button on my earpiece?" I noticed there were two buttons I could push instead of just the one I use to talk with them.

"Oh, that cuts you off from talking with us and hearing us."

"Really? Perfect!" I say happy I can finally focus without concentrating on ignoring them when they speak.

"Wait! Don't press-" I hear Natsu say frantically as I press the button.

Finally able to completely focus I see a vent on the other side of the roof and run towards it. When I reach it I take off the top and slide inside. It's one of those really big air vents so I have no problem crawling through it. I start to see a light up ahead and once I manage to crawl over to it I kick down on the cover and when it falls to the ground I jump down.

When I land I take out my pistol and make my way to the front of whatever store I landed in. As I start to reach the entrance I try to make my footsteps even quieter than they already are and peek my head out to see if there are any people around, hostages or criminals. I don't see anybody after waiting for a little so I start to walk out when I hear a yelp followed by some laughter. That has to be where they are so I quickly but silently run in the direction of the noise. When I get closer I realize that at least ten people are being held hostage while surrounded by people in black clothes and masks. I'm on the second floor so I'm looking down at them. As I'm hiding behind a couch I get a good look at my surroundings.

It looks like I'm at the center of the mall and there's a big circle hole that allows the second floor to look down at the first. It looks like a lounging area to me. The fence around the open area on the second floor is glass so that doesn't give me much cover. Then, I start to think of options to save to hostages using the little cover I have.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

I see five guys surrounding the ten hostages and at least fifteen others standing guard by every entrance to the center of the mall. Every one of them have what looks like an automatic machine gun. The five standing around the hostages also have guns. Whoever the mastermind behind this sure has to have a lot of money to be able to pay all of them. I start to think that this won't be the last time I have to go up against whatever this organization calls itself.

There are five different ways to get to where the hostages are being held so that means three guys at each entrance. Why aren't there any people making sure nobody comes from above, like me though? It almost seems like they're expecting someone to come from above. Dismissing that thought I roll my sniper over my shoulder and carefully walk over to another chair making sure I haven't been spotted. Then, I put my face up to the scope and look through it. I have the perfect view of an entrance with three guys and I aim at the one standing on the left. I have the shot lined up at the center of his back and I squeeze the trigger.

A loud gunshot echoes through the mall and every person dressed in black takes a defensive stance trying to find where the shot came from. After I shot I retreated back behind the chair to hide, but then after a few seconds I poke my head out just enough to see that the man I shot at is down. That means fourteen more to go. I smile to myself knowing that my aim was perfect. But, that smile quickly vanishes and I get serious again.

I aim once again at the person who was standing on the right and fire. I see him go down then the glass shatters about four feet to my right.

"He's on the second floor! Behind that chair!" I hear one of them shout.

Shit. They spotted me. As I wait for some of them to start running up the stairs to get me I realize they haven't moved from their spots down below. Why aren't they coming up here? They know exactly where I am. I have only taken down two people so they should have plenty of people to spare. I try to come up with reasons why they aren't attacking me, but I can't think of anything. So, I poke my head out again and see that not even one of them is pointing their guns at me. That's weird though, because one of them just shot the glass right by me.

"Hey! We have your pink friend down here so just come out! We aren't going to shoot you." One of them says to me.

Pink friend? That stupid Natsu! I told him not to get in my way and he goes and gets captured! What an idiot! I can't really do anything since they have Natsu so I stand up and expose myself.

"I told you not to get in my way!" I shout as I glare at Natsu.

"Sorry," he says giggling a little. How can he giggle in this situation?

"Yeah it was pretty easy catching him too. He basically just walked right up to us! Haha!" One of the two men holding Natsu laughs.

"What?" I send an even darker glare at him.

"I thought he was after a guy! Turns out you're a woman! Doesn't matter to me though. Why don't you just come on down here and hand yourself over?"

I do as I'm told seeing no other choice. But, what did he mean by what he just said? Someone's after me? How'd they even know I'd be here? With thoughts racing through my head I make my way over to the stairs and once I reach the bottom two men come up and strip away my sniper and take my pistol out of its holster. Then, they each grab an arm and pin them behind my back.

"So? You have us, now what?" I say with no emotion.

"Now, we wait for the man in charge."

"And who is he?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Almost just after he said that a man comes walking towards us from behind the one that was just talking to me. I can see that he's wearing a black suit and as he gets closer and closer I start to make out his face. Then, my blood runs cold and I stiffen. My eyes go wide but then I quickly narrow them and I grit my teeth.

"You!" I struggle against the men that are pinning my arms back. "Let me go!" My mind is overcome with anger and fear. It's him! He's the man from my childhood nightmare! The one who I watched kill my parents and sister! The one who gave me the scare on my right arm! He walks closer and closer to me which only causes me to feel more anger and fear.

He stands right in front of me and smiles. His smile is even worse than I remember. Then he shoos away the man pinning my right arm behind my back. Once he lets go the man from my childhood roughly grabs my wrist and pulls it towards him. I grit my teeth even harder. He sees the scar and laughs an awful laugh.

"Miss Lucy Heartfilia! It's so nice to see you again! Do you know how long it took me to track you down? I don't know how you got away from me before but I won't let it happen again. This time I'll give you more than just one little scar."

"What you call one little scar I call murdering my whole family!"

"Ah, well, let's not dwell in the past. I see you have a team you're working with now. I have been keeping tabs on you but you were always alone. It's surprising really how you are actually working with others. Although, he's not very bright handing himself in like that. Perhaps, the one in the car a couple blocks down told him to through his earpiece."

How could he know where we parked? How does he know there's more than the two of us?

"How did you know that?"

"Oh, please. I have been watching you ever since you headed out to save these people. You want to save them right? I don't really care about them since I only want you though."

He turns around and orders the five people standing around the hostages to release them. They do as he says and all ten hostages run towards the exit. Then he turns back to me.


	5. Chapter 5

"So? How have things been? We have quite the catching up to do." He says.

I just stare at him. I'm so angry. So afraid. He rambles on about finally getting to see me after all these years like we were childhood friends who moved apart. A million different thoughts are running through my head. Why now? Just exactly how long has he been watching me?

All of a sudden, he yells. "Hey! I'm talking to you! How disrespectful of you! I was even going to let you be with the rest of your utterly useless and boring family after only a couple days of carving your skin into the most beautiful painting. Now I'll have to extend that."

He reaches up and pulls my chin towards him to force me to look at him. However, as soon as I make eye contact I glare and swing my arm up with all the strength I can muster to hit him square in the face. Almost as if he could read my thoughts he catches my arm mid swing and roughly squeezes my wrist. He doesn't let go, he just holds my arm there. I try to free myself but I'm not strong enough.

"Ahahaha! You seriously think you can outmatch me?"

I begin to act desperately and I throw my other arm at him. He catches that one too.

"You're so weak! It's pathetic!"

I can't cry. Not here. Not in front of him. I won't give him the satisfactory. As I'm trying to free one of my arms he just lets go of one. Before I'm even able to bring my arm back down a sudden force erupts into my stomach and I'm flying backward. I roll a little bit after landing and I feel myself roll into something. Feet. I look up and I see Natsu's face looking like I've never seen it, despite only meeting him today. But I've only ever seen him act so carefree I didn't think it possible for him to look so dangerous.

I'm gasping for air when Natsu suddenly springs into action and I can't clearly see what he does he moves so fast. My vision's also starting to blur. The two guys holding Natsu are sprawled out on the floor, knocked out. Then Natsu bends down and cups my cheek with a surprising gentleness.

"That bastard. He hurt you."

I'm flabbergasted by his actions but I quickly recover. "I've been hit worse. I'll be fine."

"You're voice is raspy ya know? You're not fine."

"Well if you two are done gazing into each other's eyes, I'll be taking that back now." The man says from behind me.

"That? She has a name. Not like you're permitted to say it though." Natsu retorts, standing back up.

"Whatever. Name or not she's mine. My property. Has been since she was young."

"Yeah, right. Well hate to break it to ya, but from now on she's mine."

I can't help but blush a little as Natsu so easily says that to him. Although, I want to say that in no way will I ever be either of their properties, I still can't speak and I just sit on the ground in front of Natsu.

"Turn your earpiece back on Luce. We need to work together in order to bring you back."

"O-okay." I press the button and I can hear Gray again.

"Lucy! Are you alright? We'll get you out of there don't worry!" Gray frantically says.

"I'm okay for now. Thanks Gray. I'm sorry too." I look at Natsu when I apologize too. I want him to know that maybe I was wrong for going in alone. But that'll be the last time they're right and I'm wrong.

Natsu looks down at me and smiles. Then he begins to walk over to the man. I don't want him to fight him alone so I stand up as well and fall into step behind Natsu.

"Well? You ready to hand what belongs to me over?" the man asks dryly.

"As if." Natsu then leaps with incredible speed towards the man.

Surprised at his speed he staggers to the side to avoid him. Then they engage in a hand to hand fight. I can't just stand here and not help bring down that disgusting excuse for a human being so I also jump in to fight.

"Luce, what's this bastard's name?" Natsu asked and I but I actually don't know either.

"She doesn't know my name, Fluffy." The man throws more punches and kicks at us. "But if you must know, my name's Crane."

"Fluffy? Well then I must give you a nickname too. How about Little Bluebird? No that's not quite right. Oh! Little Birdy! That's it!"

How can Natsu so casually talk with Crane like this? He's fighting like he's fighting a friend in a friendly duel. As for me, I'm terrified. I can't let Crane win. Every move is so critical.

My thoughts begin to once again drift. And because of my error I receive a series of blows. My face, my sides, my legs. I hear Natsu rage while I fall to the ground. I just can't focus and fight when I'm fighting Crane. I become to angry and afraid and so many other things and I just can't think straight. I feel a tear roll down my nose as I lay on the ground. I think of how he killed my family. I don't want to fight anymore. I want it to be over. I want Natsu to hit this guy into the next world and I want to go home. I can hear Gray scream to me through the earpiece but I'm not listening. I'm just going to lay here until Natsu makes Crane leave.


End file.
